The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling the supply of sliver to the spinning stations of a spinning machine.
In an automatic open end spinning machine, cans of sliver are delivered to the spinning stations of the machine for drawing in of the sliver for separation into individual fibers for spinning into yarn and winding of the yarn into packages. One common approach for replacing empty sliver cans at the spinning station includes transporting full cans of sliver to positions adjacent the spinning stations and then manually exchanging the empty sliver cans for the full sliver cans. Additionally, proposals for more fully automating the supply of sliver to the spinning stations of a spinning machine are known.
However, in the known approaches of manually exchanging empty cans for full sliver cans and for automating the sliver supply process suffer from the common disadvantage that a spinning station may be without a supply of sliver for a relatively significant amount of time while awaiting the delivery of a new sliver can and the exchange of the new can for the empty can due to a can supply and exchange taking place at another station or stations. Accordingly, the need exists for increasing the efficiency of the sliver supply process of an automatic spinning machine.